Here Are SA's Commonwealth Games Heroes

Halala to the SA Champs!🇿🇦

The 2018 Commonwealth Games brought much success for Team SA and Athletics SA as a whole. The Gold Coast games not only highlighted the peaks that South African athletes can reach, but it also showed that in time, Team SA could become a dominant powerhouse in the world of athletics.

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Wake up, compete, win medals, repeat – that was the recurring theme for Team SA in Australia. A harvest of 37 medals (13 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze) was enough to leave South Africa sixth overall on the medals table.

SA's consistent improvement on the athletics scene is starting to show. Our athletes finished first on the medals table in the 2017 IAAF Youth Championships in Kenya and seventh at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, so the Gold Coast finish is another best performance.

Here's a list of all the Team SA athletes who proved themselves champs in Australia:

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In 2014 in Glasgow, SA bagged 40 medals, 13 of which were gold. While the team has not bettered their tally of gold medals or the total, there was a spread of medals throughout different sporting codes. Here is where Team SA won its medals:

BBC

No games round-up would have been complete without mentioning the stellar performances – and biggest disappointments:

Best Moment:

Three-time world champion, two-time Olympic champion and one back-to-back gold medal win at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) – Caster Semenya is golden!

Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters

Semenya broke two records in one race, after she took gold in the Women's 800m in a time of 1:56.68 – a Commonwealth Games record. Her 800m win (a distance that she has dominated for several years) also made her the first female athlete to win back-to-back golds in both the 1,500m and 800m.

Best Athlete:

Meet South Africa's new swimming sensation, Tatjana Schoenmaker. The 20-year-old took the games by storm — or, rather, made waves in the pool — as she ascended to the upper echelons of South Africa's swimming sorority. She outshone world stars Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh after winning back-to-back golds.

Clive Rose via Getty Images

Schoenmaker is definitely the new poster girl of SA swimming. She won two gold medals, in the women's 100m and 200m breaststroke, smashing the African records for both, the latter with a time of 2:22.02.

Biggest Disappointment:

Defending Commonwealth Games Rugby 7s champions and HSBC Sevens World Series title holders, the Bliztboks, were the favourites to claim the gold once again in 2018, but unfortunately finished in a disappointing fourth place, losing out on a medal in the process.